13th
Jan 2017
The Council of Mortgage Lenders are claiming that almost half of Britain's landlords have paid up their buy-to-let mortgages or bought their properties outright, according to its recent survey.
49% of landlords that took part in the survey stated that they owned their properties which is exceptionally high as the government's 2010 Private Landlords Survey, found that 77% cent of landlords had purchased properties by using a buy-to-let mortgages.
It seems that landlords have a staying power within the sector as 61% of landlords are 55 plus, which again is another high increase as the CML conducted a survey in 2004 where only 24% were of a similar age.
The survey also found that the annual average gross rental income was between £7,500 and £17,300, surprisingly only 5% of the landlords that took part stated that their rental income was their main source of revenue.
In spite of the government's attack on landlords it is only a small percentage that have decided to sell some of their portfolios.
6% of landlords are looking at getting out of the sector in the next 12 months, however when taking a longer term view, 14% stated that they would be leaving or downsizing their portfolio within the next five years.
Tax changes only accounted for 21% of those landlords deciding to sell up, whereas 36% of professional landlords cited this as their reason to quit the market.
Director General of the Council of Mortgage Lender Paul Smee, said: ‘While the overall findings are encouraging and offer a reassuring picture of relative stability, there is a certain irony in the researchers’ conclusions that the landlords who will be most affected by the government’s tax changes are those at the most professional end of the sector – those with large, leveraged portfolios.
"These landlords will be particularly hard hit by the changes in the treatment of mortgage interest and may choose to divest or moderate their property holdings. Given the government’s longstanding interest in professionalising the sector, policymakers will need to be closely attuned to the risk of unintended consequences and, indeed, own goals.’
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